This Is How We Would Build An 'Elysium'-Like Space Station

Gravity might be a thing of the past, everyone could drink
distilled urine, and a whole generation of Earthlings may grow up
without ever having set foot on the surface of the planet. At the
moment, those ideas are still firmly set in the realm of science
fiction, but in the next 1,000 years, new technologies could be
developed that would enable humanity to colonize space.

"It extends the capability of humans to be out in space away from
Earth," Paul Bookout, project manager of the concept demonstrator
for Deep Space Habitat at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Ala., said of building a space station in deep space. "For
example if you could go to a near-Earth asteroid and you had a
habitat out there, you could stay extended periods of time … and
do research on the asteroid, bring samples back in, continuing
work out there instead of trying to bring small samples back to
Earth."

"Elysium" — a new science fiction film about a
world in which only the rich and powerful can live in a seemingly
utopic space station orbiting Earth — is the newest in a long
line of movies dealing with the science of space living.

"The premise is totally believable to me," Mark Uhran, a former
assistant associate administrator for the International Space Station at NASA Headquarters,
said of the movie. "When I took a look at the Elysium station, I
thought to myself, that's certainly achievable within this
millennium."

How to build a station

Engineers and researchers need to overcome a few major obstacles
before a sustainable space station colony is a viable
possibility, Uhran said.

"It's clear that the number-one challenge is chemical
propulsion," Uhran told SPACE.com. "We learned an incredible
amount with [the International Space Station] and we demonstrated
that we have the technology to assemble large structures in
space. What we need are rockets that can get material out of the
Earth's gravity well and deliver it to whatever location the
future space station is assembled." [NASA Visions of Giant Space Colony Explained
(Infographic)]

The supplies needed to create the space station don't necessarily
have to come from Earth, Uhran said. Asteroids and other
planetary bodies like the moon could provide elements needed to
build the station. However, moving the heavy supplies to their
proper place in orbit from any cosmic hub would still be a
challenge for current propulsion systems.

Nuclear propulsion — rockets powered by
nuclear reactions — could be a more efficient way of taking
supplies to the station, but that kind of technology isn't
advanced enough to use currently. It's possible that scientists
will find a way to create a better propulsion system sometime in
this millennium or the next one, Uhran said.

Engineers will also need to create a closed-loop life-support
system that can recycle most of the materials used in the colony
to make the space station sustainable indefinitely. Currently,
the International Space Station operates at about a 70 to 80
percent closed loop system for water.

"In the habitats that we're designing [at Marshall Space Flight
Center in Huntsville, Ala.] at the moment, we're using the
[International Space Station]-based systems, but there is
research ongoing on making the systems more and more closed-loop
so that you can minimize the amount of air and water supplies you
have to carry up to support the crew," said David Smitherman,
study lead for research into deep space habitats and designs at
Marshall. "There are some advanced ecosystems development work
that's ongoing that's trying to do an even better job than what
we have on the space station."

Radiation is also a major concern for
astronauts living onboard a space station. Crewmembers on the
International Space Station today are blasted with about 40 times
more potentially dangerous space radiation during a six-month
stint on the orbiting outpost than the average person gets in a
year on the ground. Those numbers would only get worse the deeper
an astronaut travels into space.

Comfort in a space station

One deep-space travel issue that scientists probably wouldn't
need to worry about is isolation, experts say. By building a
colony that could support more than just a small crew, astronauts
will probably have enough social activity to prevent
isolation-related issues in space.

That doesn't mean that the space station shouldn't at least be
somewhat comfortable. Scientists working with NASA's Deep Space
Habitat program are developing ways to create a comfortable
living space for astronauts aboard a space station in deep space.

"On one end, you have crew quarters and then it has a little
hallway that opens up into a larger living area," Bookout told
SPACE.com. "We're trying to change up the versatility; instead of
living in a box, it's something like your house."

One station design the scientists at Marshall are looking into is
somewhat like Skylab, the first American space station that
was inhabited for 171 days between 1973 and 1974. The station
could be ideal for deep space living because it provides a
somewhat comfortable living situation through design.

A deep space station could be built using NASA's
Space Launch System — a heavy launch rocket in
development that could deliver astronauts to deep-space
destinations including Mars. The station would be made from a
tank used on the rocket that would be about the size of a
two-story house, much larger than the rooms in the International
Space Station.

"[One] configuration that we've looked at is a 500-day
configuration that would go to a near-Earth asteroid or Mars," Bookout
said. "It consisted of a space station lab-size module and they
would have a multipurpose logistics module and that would make up
your core elements for the mission."

Design a station, win a prize

People from all walks of life can get involved in NASA's mission
to create a sustainable deep space habitat, planners say.

The space agency sponsors the eXploration Habitat (X-Hab)
Academic Innovation Challenge for university students. The X-Hab
competition asks students for ideas about the best ways to craft
a space station that could exist for an indefinite amount of time
in deep space.

"One of the nice things about the X-Hab project is that we have
been able to fund student work on a variety of habitat designs,
which stimulates us and gives us ideas about ways to lay them out
and innovative things to incorporate," Smitherman said.